As the 50-day window for demonetisation came to an end on Friday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stressed that the situation has largely returned to normal.

Though he did not comment on when the curbs on cash withdrawals would be removed, Jaitley stressed that the Reserve Bank of India has sufficient stocks to inject more currency into the market.

Jaitley further said his officials are tabulating the data on deposits of demonetised currency. “What has come into the system does not make the money white. But, the money loses its anonymity and it can be identified to a taxable entity or person,” he emphasised.

“From Saturday, the entire currency in circulation will be legitimate and will augment the existing currency stock,” he said.

Announcing the decision to withdraw ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes on November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked citizens to bear with him till December 30 for deposit of old notes and replacement of the currency.

With 86 per cent of the currency demonetised, the RBI and Finance Ministry had also limited weekly withdrawals by individuals from bank accounts to ₹24,000 and imposed a daily limit of ₹2,500 on withdrawal from ATMs.

Taking on Chidambaram Taking a dig at former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who, earlier in the day had said that there is no correlation between the increase in tax collection and GDP growth, Jaitley said: “I would like to learn the economics where lower GDP leads to higher tax revenues.”

He noted that the higher growth in tax revenues till November 30 this year as against last year, such as service tax and central excise duty, was directly linked to economic activities. “The revenue figures are real,” he stressed.

Jaitley had on Thursday brushed aside criticism that demonetisation would hurt the economy and had said that tax collection data showed an increase compared to the previous year. While direct tax collections grew 14.4 per cent till December 19, indirect tax receipts had risen by 26.2 per cent by November 30 as compared to a year ago, he had said.

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